Saturday, September 22, 2007

Pilot reviews part 2 - Bionic Woman and Life

A couple more early reviews thanks to Comcast OnDemand.

Life - I'm usually completely uninterested in cop shows but I checked this one out mostly because of Damian Lewis, who I'm a fan of thanks to his awesome performances in Band of Brothers and the Forsyte Saga. Unfortunately I think his talent is a bit misplace here. First of all, why do people keep insisting on making TV series based on concepts that are more suited to a movie or miniseries? Here we have Charlie Crews, a cop who was wrongly committed of a crime and spent 12 years in prison for it. Newly exonerated and released, he returns to the force with a side motive of finding out who framed him. Now, I'm all for crime procedurals having a twist, because that's really the only reason I'd watch one. But I mean, how long are they planning to take in uncovering the mystery behind his framing? Because will there be a show after that gets solved?

Regardless, though, I don't really think that they're going to get to the point where that's going to be a real concern. Maybe Damian Lewis is supposed to be NBC's answer to House or something but his American accent here is a little strange and his character is quirky in a not so likable way. Like his obsession with fruit...random much? I don't know how this show is being targeted to, but somehow I don't think it's going to attract them.

Bionic Woman - I know next to nothing about the original Bionic Woman, but some of the people who remade Battlestar Galactica are behind this one as well, and it's been getting a lot of buzz in general. After watching the pilot though, the jury's definitely still out.

Our Bionic Woman is Jaime Sommers, a bartender who never finished college and has custody of her teenage sister, Becca. She seems kind of unextraordinary in general, but when she gets into a horrible car accident (which might not have been an accident after all), her boyfriend, a professor and surgeon, "rebuilds" her as the Bionic Woman. Or well, a bionic woman, because she's the second one. Katee Sackoff of BSG plays Sarah Corvus, the original Bionic Woman, who was presumed dead after snapping and killing dozens, but is now confirmed to still be alive.

It's all pretty intriguing, but the pilot was really all setup and it definitely remains to be seen how the show progresses. The characters' personalities aren't really clear yet, especially Jaime's. I'm not yet convinced that I can buy her as kickass. And if she's going to carry the show we need to care about her, which I was actually having trouble with. After the accident and finding out that she was bionic...I thought her reactions were a bit off. (I'm kind of reminded of the pilot of Alias, which got all of this stuff right, even though though it did eventually all go downhill.) Jaime's sister, Becca, is cute and plucky, but I wonder how her computer hacker skills are going to play into the story. I kind of already hate Will, Jaime's boyfriend, although I don't think he's supposed to be one of the bad guys. I was kind of intrigued by Jae, one of the operatives that trained Sarah and was romantically involved with her, but the rest of the people at the biological research company are still just faces.

Katee Sackoff was awesome and pretty much stole the show, though it's not clear how much of a regular role she's going to have. Although maybe that's a good thing because next to her, our supposed heroine Jaime just seemed extremely bland...